Legend of Arphenion
by Penelope Jadewing
Summary: Someone steals Elliot away moments before he dies, and through a portal from the Abyss, has left him in a strange world. Sick with the aftereffects of his terminated contract, he struggles to remember who he is, where he came from, and what happened, at the same time learning where he is now. Young Link Taure aids him in his new quests. AU, mild ElliotXfem!OC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, this was just an idea that came to me... I don't know how many people look at the crossovers as much as I do, so I'm not sure how many will view this either, but I'm posting it anyway, 'cause I think it's cool, and maybe the few people who find it will like it and maybe even review. XP So! here's the low down - **

**Someone steals Elliot away mere moments before he dies, and through a portal from the Abyss, has delivered him into a strange world. While being treated for the aftereffects of his now terminated contract, he struggles with remembering who he is, where he came from, and what happened to him, at the same time learning just where he is now. Young Prince Link Taure, son of the king his namesake, aids him in his new quests. Set after the Second Coming of Age Ceremony, and in the universe of Twilight Princess. AU, mild ElliotXfem!OC.**

**Hope y'all like it! Reviews are appreciated, and motivating. XP**

**~Penelope**

* * *

_Panting breaths. Harried footsteps. Darkness, darkness. Fading lights. Fading, he's fading. Drifting. Going somewhere. Where? Where is he going?_

_Leo. Leo was screaming. Because he was dying. Leo's master was dying._

_Hard ground. Something cool, soft, wet beneath his head. Hair feathers over his cheek. White hair, snow-white hair. Through the red, a tear-streaked face, covered in blood, his blood. Golden eyes drawing closer. A gentle kiss on his forehead._

_"You'll be okay… You'll be okay," she says quietly, brushing his blood-soaked hair from his eyes. "Just don't let go. Never let go. Never forget… who you were. Elliot… last of the Nightrays. Maybe… maybe someday…"_

_Voices in the distance. The woman stands after placing one more kiss on his crimson-stained cheek, and in a burst of shadow, is gone. Her Chain… S-Siren?_

_People. Strange people, wearing strange clothes. Swirling, swirling blackness. Fading, fading fast. Someone's lifting him, carrying him. Voices all around. Floating, all disappearing… Dark. No pain. Peace. Sleep._

_Not death. Sleep._

* * *

"Hey, he's waking up…"

His eyelids slide open, weighted with lingering slumber. His fiery cobalt irises dart about, searching, searching, for what? He doesn't know. Something.

He lies on a blanket-strewn cot, thin, low to the ground. Or floor. A wooden floor stretches to a wooden wall, which rises to meet a wooden ceiling. Rustic, saturated with the scent of pine and hazel and a blazing hearth fire, which glows ember-orange in a red-brick fireplace in the wall beyond the foot of his strange bed.

A splash of bright color amidst all the brown draws his gaze upward. Looming over him is a youthful face, cocked to the side in the curious expression of a dog. Bright cerulean eyes nestle in a tanned face dusted with light freckles, half curtained by unruly honey hair. He wears what looks like a tunic with one long sleeve, and one short sleeve – one green, one tan – and a sash, the style of which seems vaguely familiar. By the slightly squarish jaw, straight nose, and gangly neck, the boy can't be much older than sixteen years of age.

He tries to keep his focus on the details of his surroundings, ignoring the aching pit of nothingness that plagues his mind. He should be thinking where he is, what time and year it is, what happened… and who is he? Who is he, who is he?

He has no name. He has no past. He knows nothing. Nothing besides the details of what now confronts him. This stranger.

"Who are you?" His voice is hoarse, like he spent an entire night screaming at the top of his lungs. It hurts to speak, yet he pretends like it doesn't.

Without answering, the other youth reaches over, and a glass of clear water is presented to him. Though a foreign part of him objects, what logic is left bare in his mind tells him to take it, which he does with a nod of thanks. As he drinks, the boy leans back in his chair, folding his arms.

"My name is Link. But I think I should be the one asking questions."

Alarms blare in his mind, ghosts of something like pride making him nearly choke on the water. But why? Why does that comment grate on him so? By all rights, the stranger does have the authority, if what he guesses happened is correct – something happened to him, and this person took him in, sheltered him, treated him. If this is true, then he owes this person due respect.

He simply nods, lowering the glass to rest on his stomach as the strange boy leans his elbows on his knees. It seems like the blond one can't hold still for more than a few seconds.

"We found you in the woods. Some kind of portal spit you out," says the other. "Bloody mess, you were." The boy's brow raises. "Couldn't find any wounds, though. A friend of ours cleaned you up and looked you over, but couldn't find anything."

_No wounds… Woods… Blood… _No sense. He finds no sense in it. That fact makes him want to crush the glass in his fist, feel the pain, watch his fingers bleed. At least then, there would be a reason.

"What on earth happened to you?" the stranger asks, and he turns away.

What did happen?

Slowly, he shakes his head. "I-" His voice cracks. He clears his aching throat. "I don't know…"

The stranger's brows raise high. "You don't know?"

Again, he shakes his head. "No."

"Crud… Okay, uh… Well, that's okay. Um… I'm sure it'll come back; I suppose I can't expect you to remember everything when you just woke up." The kid gives an awkward laugh, at which he simply raises a sardonic brow. He hopes this guy doesn't always so glaringly lack tact.

"My father – he was with me when we found you – says he found some tracks and a blood trail, but the tracks were smaller than your feet. Was someone else with you? Do you remember?"

Searching, searching, he searches his memory. Somewhere, it must be there somewhere… He has to know!

He's forced to shake his head yet again. "No. I don't."

The other boy sighs, cradling his chin in the palm of one hand as he studies his guest. "Okay… Well, what's your name?"

His memory is a vast abyss of nothingness, and his eyes quiver as he strains through its depths, shuffling through images that he can't really see. His fingers tremble when he comes up empty handed. This time, his words falter before he is able to form them.

"I-I don't know."

The stranger – Link, he said his name was? – winces, rubbing his temple in a circular motion with his middle and index fingers. "All right… So you remember nothing."

Nothing. Nothing. "Nothing."

Another sigh escapes Link as he lowers his gloved hand. "Pity. I was really curious to hear your story."

Again, with the tact. He scowls, but his host is oblivious to it as he stands and goes over to a small round table in the far left corner. He picks up an object that rests on its rugged surface. "Your clothes were unsalvageable, but we did manage to clean this up."

He absently runs his fingers over the loose what-feels-like-cotton shirt that hangs over his frame like it's two sizes too large before Link brings over a golden, metallic object. A long chain, with a pin on one end, and a magnificent cross adorned in red and gold tassels on the other. He stares at it, hoping, believing that it will jar some memory to life. But it doesn't.

"It looks like some sort of crest," said Link when he relinquishes the pendant to him. "Does it look familiar at all?"

He shakes his head, running his fingers over the smooth metal surface of the artifact. So foreign, so beautifully intricate, metalwork only visible at a close distance. Amazingly out of place in the room he's now in. He sits up to see it in a better light, and suddenly gasps in pain when something stabs through his chest. Link straightens, stepping closer.

"Hey…"

Throb, throb, throbbing drowns out his words. It's like someone's stabbing his chest again and again. Something hot and sticky oozes over his chest, stains his shirt, makes it stick to him like it's soaked in syrup. He clutches at the pain, and then peers at his hands. Black tar-like liquid stains them.

He's lying on his back again, staring at the ceiling as calloused fingers fiddle with the laces on the neck of the white shirt, pull the fabric back just enough to see where it hurts.

"Okay, that wasn't there before…" the kid mutters to himself, and a wet cloth is dabbed over what feels like a gaping puncture.

He chances a look down at his own chest. What looks like a massive bruise stains the flesh just over his heart a gruesome myriad of purple, black, and blue. From a gash at the very center of it spouts the tar, like thick black blood. With every pulse, a new wave of it flows from the strange wound.

He's hot, cold, clammy, sweating. The room shudders and spins. Ghosts drift about, unfamiliar faces and voices swirling in his head. No, no, too loud, too confusing, make it all stop!

Someone else enters the room, two others. A man and a woman, blond and auburn. Both hover over him. Soon, the tar is halted, linens wound about his chest to staunch the flow, and he's wrapped in three more blankets. A black pot heats water over the fire, and lets steam fill the room, clearing his head with a sweet, floral scent. Lavender. And peppermint.

Link, after poking the fire, sits beside the bed, peering up at him like an inquisitive child.

"Are you a noble?" he asks quietly, which makes him open his eyes.

He shakes his head. "Can't… remember."

"I thought so… Just thought I'd ask. 'Cause you look like one."

A smile tilts one corner of his mouth upward, and the expression feels good, seems to release some of the pressure in his head and heart. "You think so?"

"Yeah. Just the way you carry yourself, even sick and bedridden. It screams regality. Whoever you were, you were someone important, I'll tell you that."

_"Never forget…"_

He chuckles, and more of his tension ebbs just a tad. "Well… I suppose… I can take that as a compliment."

"You can," says Link with a reciprocating chortle.

_"Who you were…"_

"But I'm gonna have to call you something until you remember." His host cocks his head to the side, resting his chin on his hand. "Mind if I name you?"

He closes his tired eyes, turning his head back to the ceiling. "Go right ahead. As long as it doesn't sound stupid."

"I'm not that cruel." Link then proceeds to ponder and think, and think and ponder until he narrows his eyes as if considering something. "Well… There's quite a number of names that mean 'noble', 'cause at the moment, that's all we really know about you. There's… Arbellason."

He shakes his head. "Sounds too much like a girl's name."

"Um… Vehiron?"

"Like someone sneezing."

Link laughs. "Okay, Aradon?"

"Eh… Makes me think… of a lizard."

"Nostarion?"

"Are you picking names that make me think of weird things on purpose?"

So it goes, Link suggesting names and he refuting them, and both of them falling to laughter more than once. Finally, the other boy says a name that catches his interest.

"How about Arphenion? It means 'son of a nobleman'. You coulda been a scion, right?"

Arphenion. It sounds… Romanesque. He likes it, and nods. "I think that's it."

"It's kind of long," says Link, recalling some of his reasons why he rejected certain previous suggestions.

"But not too long… And it flows. Has a ring to it." He reaches for his water glass, the cooler air making the hair raise on his arm as long as it's exposed. After taking a sip and setting the glass aside once more, he tucks his arm back into his wool cocoon.

"And I can call you Arphy," says Link with a snicker, at which he receives a sharp look.

"Don't even think about it," he warns.

"Whatever you say, Arphy."

His lip twitches, and he rolls his eyes before rubbing his still-hot forehead. Despite the urge to wipe that smirk off Link's face, he can't help a small grin. It isn't as if he's in the condition to do anything about it anyways.

"Okay, so I believe official introductions are in order." Link hops to his feet, and extends his hand down. "Hullo there! I am Link Taurë. And you are?"

He smirks, and reluctantly draws his hand from under the blankets to shake his host's. "Arphenion."

"A pleasure to meet you!"

So maybe he can't remember. But maybe waiting won't be as torturous as he first thought. After all, he has a whole world to explore, and a new friend to drag along with him.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Not a long chappie... But I had fun writing it, anyways. If you want to see a picture of Arphenion, search PenelopeJadewing on deviantArt. *nod* Also, this is no specific game version of Link; more like my own 'incarnation' if that's what you wanna call it. This will have references to many of the different games, but is set in no particular one.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"_This is gonna be epic!" _shrieks the bouncing orb of light that flutters in and out of his vision. With another stifled sigh, Arphenion swats her away, uttering a hurried 'shhh' under his breath, just loud enough that only she can hear.

Unfortunately, the fairy is not daunted. "_The long awaited showdown! Such is the thing of legends! How this battle ends will go down in history, so make it count!"_

"Shut up!" he hisses. "Or I'll shove you in the cowl again."

He can almost see her look of disgust on her tiny face. "_Peh! Don't you ever wash that thing? Do you know how bad it smells in there?"_

"It does not."

"_It smells like your breath."_

"Which isn't bad."

She scoffs, rolling her ruby eyes. "_To you, maybe. Think of how it is to me, though! I'm, like, a ka-gillion times smaller than you!"_

Glancing sidelong at her, he raises an eyebrow. "That doesn't effect smell, Pipsqueak."

"_How would you know, Behemoth? Have you ever been this small?"_

"No."

"_Well, there you go then."_

A twig snaps somewhere close by, and he's instantly alert, tensing and gripping the branch on which he perches all the tighter. He shallows his breathing, and stills all movement. In contrast, the fairy's light pulses, and she jitters about with even more hyper energy.

"_He's coming! He's coming!"_

He snatches her out of the air and presses his thumb over her tiny mouth, effectively silencing her to mere grunts and wiggles in her efforts to escape. Another sigh grows in his throat. "Sometimes, I regret saving you from that swamp," he manages to breathe, quieter than a whisper, at which the fairy scowls.

"_Oo-oh-oo-offh-ehh."_

He frowns, shaking his head and closing his hand over her to conceal her telltale light. If his quarry spots the rosy glow through the trees, he's done for.

Just in time, as well. As her pink aura fades, Arphenion spots a splash of color amidst all the green of the surrounding woods. His prey strolls along the forest path, looking about at the shafts of sunlight, the flitting trees, and swinging the empty bucket at his side, droplets of water flinging out occasionally. Arphenion smiles to himself; completely unawares, that's how he liked his prey.

Shifting his weight to his toes, he leans forward in anticipation for just the right moment. It must be perfect! If the timing is off just the slightest, then it is quite possible he'll lose the upper hand rather quickly.

Just as the oblivious target passes under his tree, he releases the fairy and drops down without a sound. His feet land square at the back of the other youth's shoulders, and both of them tumble ungracefully to the ground. Before the victim of his attack can recover, Arphenion pushes at the ground behind his head and flips up onto his feet, drawing his curved sword. Giving the other only a moment to catch his bearings, he lashes out, blade glistening. The one with shaggy hair yelps, and backpedals, fumbling for his own sword and soon drawing it from its scabbard on his back.

The blades clash, and he takes note of the tightening of his opponent's brow, the obvious shift into concentration, a clear contrast to the light-hearted lad of a moment gone. Again and again, they thrust and parry and dodge, going round about in an endless circle until finally, Aphernion gathers himself and, with a bound more powerful than a stag in its prime, launches over his opponent's head, landing on his toes behind him and lashing out with a hard roundhouse kick between his quarry's shoulder blades. The youth pitches forward, sprawling on his hands and knees, sword skittering from his grasp. Not hesitating, he follows through in stabbing his sword just over the other's shoulder, and using his knee to knock the opponent aside onto his back, and digging the same knee into the ribs. With a jerk, he frees his sword from the ground, and rests it at his victim's throat.

"There," he mutters, taking a deep breath. "Satisfied?"

Despite the cold steel edge pressing at his neck, his victim simply grins. "Took you two years."

In a movement as swift and effortless as his attack had been, Arphenion stands to his feet and steps back. "Two years well spent." He offers his hand, and helps Link to his feet.

"Reef was no help, I see," Link says while brushing himself off. "I thought I heard a fairy."

Said fairy appears from behind him, bouncing like a rubber ball in thin air. "_I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE EPIC! Oh, Neon, that was absolutely fantastic! The way you dove down on him like a hawk – your eyes were, like, flaming, dude! Totally untouchable!"_

Link snickers, and grabs her by the wings. "Yeah, yeah, Reef, we all know your crazy about him; so why don't you go and give him a cute little fairy kiss already?" With anything short of grace, he tosses the little glowing person toward her master. She nearly hits Arphenion's forehead before she slows herself. Arphenion smirks as her normally bright hue deepens to an embarrassed crimson.

"_I-I do not! What the heck are you talkin' about!? He's a human!"_

"Big whoop," Link says with a shrug. "Dozens of fairies have crushes on their partners; don't be ashamed, Reef, we understand."

"_SHUT UP! You don't know what you're talking about! I don't have a crush! Humans are disgusting! Okay? You heard me say it! Ick! YUCK!" _Still, her color remains a deep blush, and Arphenion can't resist the temptation to reach out and pat her head.

"You're so cute when you're blushing, Reef," he says in a tone of over exaggerated babying. "I love how fairies can never hide their emotions."

"_AHHHH!" _Her color darkening further, she flutters about before she sweeps under Link's green cap – the one he's taken to wearing all the time since his father gave it to him on his eighteenth birthday. The one that looks utterly ridiculous.

Arphenion makes a face, wrinkling his nose. "No offense, but why do you wear that thing?"

"What?" Link looks up, raising his brows. Then understanding comes over his face as he realizes what his friend is talking about. "The Minish cap? Because it's _awesome_!"

"I'd have to disagree with that statement." With a swipe, he snatches the cap off Link's head and shakes it until the red fairy comes tumbling out into his palm. Then he proceeds to prance away with the cap still in his hand whilst Link chases after him.

"Neon! Man, come back here! That thing is, like, centuries old! If you so much as fray a single thread-!"

Neon laughs, hopping over a rock to cross one of the many streams that winds through Ordon Woods. "You don't trust me?" he says, feigning hurt, at which Link snorts.

"About as far as I can throw you."

"Which?"

"Isn't far."

With a snicker, Neon waits for Link to cross the stream before scampering ahead once more, always staying just out of reach. Quite suddenly, something hard hits him in the back of the head and he yelps, clutching his aching scalp.

But he's laughing, still. "Ow!"

Link marches up and snatches his cap back, shoving it on his head with resolve. "Yeah. That was the idea."

"_Hey, guys!" _Reef flutters between them, light pulsing as she points. "_Look, look! What is that?"_

The two teens turn in the direction which she indicates, seeing something flickering on the ground, something dark. Neon frowns at the sight and glances at Link to find a similar look on his friend's face. The Hylian cocks his head and inches closer, glancing around occasionally. Neon follows, shifting most of his weight unconsciously to his toes. Just in case.

The flickering thing suddenly explodes with a burst of tangible shadows, and with the rattle of bones, a Stalfos staggers out.

"_EEEEKKK!"_

With its jaw unhinged, it swings its rusty blade without hesitation. Just as quickly, however, both Neon and Link unsheathe their swords and charge at it in unison with duel war cries. Link swipes low and slides on his knees while Neon aims high and jumps over Link's head. Having no way of defending itself from two assaults at once, and having very few brains in that hollow skull of its, the Stalfos shrieks and is sent head over heels from the blow.

"Neon, the head!"

Raising his arm high, Neon brings his blade down onto the skeleton's rattling neck and slices between the discs easily. The creature screams and writhes, before Link shatters its ribcage with his sword. It disintegrates into dust, and only its skull, with its soulless eye sockets, remains.

Neon kicks the skull aside, watching it pitch and roll into the bushes with a scowl. Meanwhile, Link simply stares at the dust, befuddled.

"What on earth… was a Stalfos doing all the way out here?" he mutters, smearing the dust with his booted toe. "They never come any further south than… Well, than Hyrule Field."

"Something to do with that thing, maybe?"

Link looks where Neon pointed, to the same thing that had drawn their attention previously. Like a shard of black glass, it glistens in the shafts of sunlight that streams through the trees. It holds an aura of darkness about it, as if the shard itself is swallowing up the light around it. Link reachs out and taps it with the tip of his sword. It hums, like a bell, and sparks fly in all directions. Frowning, the Hylian stoops to pick it up.

"Might not be the smartest idea," Neon quips, sheathing his sword and eyeing the small thing on the ground. "We don't even know what it is. All we know is that a Stalfos came from it."

Link glances at him over his shoulder. "We don't _know _that. For sure, anyway. Maybe it came for it, or to it."

"Both also good reasons to leave it be."

"Or good reasons to take it and see what we can find out about it." Link tears a strip of fabric from the hem of his tunic. "But just to make you happy, I won't touch it myself." He sets the cloth over the object and then scoops it up, wrapping it and tucking it in his pocket. He casts Neon a grin.

Neon rolls his eyes, and glances about. "…Reef?"

He jumps when something moves against his neck, under the grey fabric of his cowl. A bright red light nearly blinds him, appearing from somewhere close, just under his jaw.

"_Is it dead?"_

"It's gone. You're safe."

The sprite sighs with relief, and Neon feels her rest her tiny head on his neck. He just rolls his eyes again, though with a fond smile.

"_Did you know things like Stalfos eat things like fairies for snacks?" _she mutters, shuddering. He laughs and reaches up to pat her head with a finger.

"Not on my watch."

"D'aw, how cute – Neon and his fairy, sitting in a tree!" Link begins to singsong, skipping out of Neon's arm's reach. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"Yeah, yeah, real mature, Link!" he darts after him, and the chase begins toward Ordon village.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Really short, I know, but I was in a hurry to get this next chapter done and posted... Kinda got some other writing demands right now. But I promise, not all the chapters will be this short! XP**

Link skids to a halt several yards short of the village. His heart shudders, the color drains from his face, leaving him lightheaded and breathless. Never in all his short amount of time on this good earth has he felt such dread. Not even the first time he met a Stalfos near Ordon Spring. That time, it was just his own life that had been in danger. Until he killed it. But now…

Smoke rises from Ordon.

He bolts forward just as Neon comes up behind him.

"Link!" Neon calls after him with warning. He knows he should heed that warning, and that small voice in the back of his head that's telling him not to be a fool. But he can barely hear that voice over the great rumble that shakes the area, makes the ground ripple, throws both boys off their feet. Tucking himself into a roll, Link is back on his feet in a blink, and continuing on his beeline for the village's main street.

He passes overturned wagons, panicking horses, and scrambling villagers on his dash to the hub of the chaos. He rounds a corner, and nearly collides with the ugly pig face of a Moblin. The creature shrieks in surprise, and takes a moment to scramble for its jagged blade. Without a second of hesitation, he brandishes his sword and runs it through. Heat washes over his hand, and he withdraws before the thing's wretched blood can stain him.

A blur of tan and red flies past him, slamming into the torso of another Moblin, driving it to the ground. The long, curved blade of a knife flashes, and impales the pig before it's whipped out again, and thrown into the face of a charging Bokoblin.

"Where the heck did all these goblins come from!?" Neon cries as he throws himself to the side, out of the path of a spear thrust by a massive Bulbin. Link jumps to his friend's side, and removes said Bulbin of its spear arm. Its scream of pain is cut short as his sword cuts its throat.

"You expect me to know?" he calls back, driving his sword up to the hilt into a Moblin's chest just before it pounces on a fleeing Hylian. "Run!" he tells the woman, before jerking his blade free and using the momentum to cut a Bokoblin's head clean off its shoulders.

It's one thing when, every so often, a band of Moblins from the wilderness works up the gall to raid one of the villages in the southern province. It's entirely another to have a hoard of them invade with one purpose, it seems, and one purpose alone: destroy the village. Why? Why today of all days?

Without waiting for Neon, Link barrels around the street corner, intending to head straight for the outskirts. To his home. He has to be sure Dad's all right! He has to! But as he rounds the corner, he runs into broad shoulders, and instantly, his hand is ready to swing his sword. But a fist on his wrist stops him – a very human fist.

"Dad!"

The man's eyes, normally bright with sarcasm and wit, are dark with concern and duty. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Link suddenly has a very good idea of what his father is going to say.

"Link, you have to get out of here!"

He clenches his jaw. "No! I can't just leave you guys-"

"Listen to me!" Dad shakes his shoulders urgently. "Go to the Kokiri. Find the Lost Woods, and then get to Kakariko as fast as you can. Take this." Something cool and smooth is shoved into Link's hand, and he finds himself staring at a blue ocarina. Slowly, he shakes his head.

"You're coming with us…" He intended it as a question, but it comes out more like a statement of fading hope.

Dad sighs. "I'll meet you at Kakariko as soon as I can. In the meantime, go to the Sage there – she'll keep you until I arrive."

"They've set fire to the city center!" Neon shouts to them as he approaches at a sprint. Just as he begins his stop, Dad grabs his collar and holds him steady, leveling his hazel eyes at the boy with ashy hair. Link sees something pass between them before Dad speaks.

"Neon, this is your Rite," he says in a low voice, and Link wonders if he's supposed to be able to hear it at all. "This is everything you've been training for. It's time." He glances to Link. "For both of you. You're men, now." He swats Link's shoulder. "Act like it."

"Yes, Alpha," Neon says, inclining his head. Suck up. Link glowers.

"Now," Dad finishes, "get your butts moving!"

"Wait, what? To where?" Neon glances between them as Link moves off.

"To Kakariko!" he calls back. For a brief moment, he hesitates, and looks back. Dad's left Neon's side, and is heading toward the city square, drawing his curved katana. Try as he might to fend off the thought, he can't help but wonder if this is the last time he'll see him.

"Why Kakariko?" Neon's suddenly beside him, and he jumps.

"Dang it, Neon, don't do that to me! I'm jumpy as it is…" He sprints forward, toward the little cottage at the very end of the street.

"Well, ex_cuse _me for wanting a bit of elaboration," Neon returns as he follows after, and they race for the door. Link, upon getting there first, throws the door open with a bang, and heads straight up the stairs two at a time. Neon's hot on his heels.

"Hey, whoa, wait! Where's Reef?" the human asks, stopping in his tracks as they reach the top of the stairs. Link doesn't want to stop; time is of the essence! But, of course, they can't leave without Reef anyway. He slows down, glancing back. That is, until something moves on his head, and the red fairy flits out from under his cap.

_"Right here! Don't worry; I'm okay!" _she says, going over to Neon, whose face broadcasts his relief. Link doesn't resist the urge to smirk; he needs a good distraction right about now.

"First comes love," he mutters, quietly, but just loud enough that he knows they both hear him, "then comes marriage…"

"How the heck do you think that'd work, anyway?" Neon says with a glare as both he and Reef match hues.

Link shrugs. "I don't. It's just the thought that's funny."

"Oh, yes, hilarious. I'm busting a seam, here. Look, I might even be crying." Neon rolls his eyes, and follows as Link makes his way to the room at the far end of the hall – their room. While he goes in to gather what they need, Neon stays outside the room to keep watch.

Link gathers his things from his bureau and bunk first – the sword Dad had given him that morning (he trades his current sword for this one), his cloak, a knife or two, his stash of red potion and fairy bottles, and of course, his heavy pouch of rupees, and a couple maps – before going over to Neon's things. It seems like the human has less in his possession – a belt of throwing knives, a hood, a small handful of rupees… He doesn't keep much, does he? Link makes packs for each of them, and then tosses Neon his, almost hitting Reef in the process.

_"Hey, watch it!" _the fairy squeaks. Link only smirks.

"Just keeping you on your toes, Reef."

_"I fly, doofus. I don't need to be on my toes."_

"Whatever. Let's go, before-"

Something explodes downstairs, and the shrieks of Moblins travel up to their ears. Neon goes stiff, while Link interrupts himself with a groan.

"Okay. Too late."

"Fight or flight, Link?" Neon asks, leveling a hard gaze at him. He knows that, whatever he answers, Neon will have his back.

He wants to go kill those Moblins. So bad, he does. They're terrorizing his village, and now they're destroying his home. They deserve the worst he can give them. But… Dad had ordered them to leave. And he'd sounded so… so serious about it. Dad was never serious about things, and always encouraged Link to fight, not run.

Something is different this time. Something big… And he hates feeling in the dark about it.

Link shakes his head, more to himself than to Neon. "…I can't believe I'm saying this, but flight. We need to get out of here, and fast. We don't have time to fight Moblins."

Neon nods, and darts for the turret. Link follows, easily keeping up with him until they reach the round tower room. Neon jumps onto the pole at the center and slides down, disappearing in the shadows below. Link waits in silence.

"All right, I'm out of the way!" echoes Neon's voice at last. "Hurry up!"

Link latches his fists onto the pole and jumps off the ledge, sliding past what he knows to be the ground floor, and into the secret chamber of the cellar. Darkness, save for Reef's rosy light, surrounds them as Link lands deftly on his feet, and stumbles away from the pole. He looks up through the hole where he came from. Above them, crashing and cracking sounds can be heard as the Moblins tear their way through the cabin.

"They're ripping it apart…" Neon whispers, and for a moment, the two boys sit in silence, listening to their home being destroyed.

Link grips his father's sword hilt and draws the blade from its sheath, staring at the red glint on the metal with a stern expression. "Come on."

With Reef bobbing ahead to light their way, they follow the passage that the map of the Catacombs says will lead them east, to the Woods.


End file.
